Reds outfielder TJ Friedl made a spectacular catch as he crashed into the wall in right-center field with two on and two outs in the top of the 8th inning to help keep his team in a game Cincinnati lost 11-10, and National Baseball Hall of Famer and Bally Sports Ohio analyst Barry Larkin didn’t hold back in his praise of the defensive standout who’s hitting .288 this season.
“I love absolutely everything about TJ Friedl,” Larkin said during the broadcast. “The thing I think that just stands out the most is his willingness to do whatever it takes, be it lay a bunt down, give up himself for the team or give up his body and go into that wall. … This young man puts it out there every single day. Love TJ Friedl.”
“I’m fine,” Friedl said after the game, per The Enquirer’s Gordon Wittenmyer. “I just jammed my (left) elbow into my side (on the catch). It was just kind of awkward. My shoulder’s fine. It wasn’t anything like that.”
“I don’t know if these things are supposed to be anonymous, but I just voted for TJ Friedl for the Heart & Hustle Award for the Cincinnati Reds,” Bally Sports Ohio analyst and former Red Sam LeCure said after the game. “And it’s plays like this as to why I wrote and my comment was, ‘TJ to me embodies everything and the characteristic that this team is about.’ He goes out and he plays hard. This was not because he wanted to get on the highlight reel. It’s because he wants to win for his teammates. And he’s trying to do everything he can to win a ballgame. And that’s why he did it . We’ve said it before: It’s looks like there’s padding. There’s concrete under it. That did not feel good. … I love the way he goes about it.”
Earlier in the game, rookie Christian Encarnacion-Strand hit a go-ahead, pinch-hit, three-run homer for his first big-league hit in his second MLB game.
Social media reactions to Friedl’s remarkable defensive gem, including from The Enquirer’s Charlie Goldsmith and Gordon Wittenmyer:
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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Barry Larkin praises TJ Friedl’s outfield catch running into GABP wall